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The Great White…Manta

There’s a dive site just off the north coast of Sumbawa well known for it’s benthic critters like the wonderpus, ghost pipefish, and and a rainbow of nudies, called Sumbawa Surprise. This week however, the surprise wasn’t the beautiful little bottom dwellers, it was the giant oceanic manta that was almost entirely white that spent the better part of half an hour circling the boat. Just to put things into perspective for you of how much of a surprise this animal was to us… I’ve been doing back to back Bali-Komodo-Bali trips for over three years now, with around 2,000 dives in this particular area, and this was the first time I have ever seen an oceanic manta in these waters. The other shocking characteristic about the manta was how white it was! Seventy-five percent of it’s back was completely white, which is highly unusual as most have a bit of white on the fin tips and just behind the mouth. No one, from dive guides to our guests had ever seen one such as this. I felt like Captain Ahab as I climbed into the dinghy so it could put me in position to be closer with it, only instead of a harpoon I had my trusty camera!

This trip was critter crazy and kickstarted with a bang on the first night! We had a great night dive at the picturesque Satonda Island halfway to Komodo National Park. Stargazers, Ambon scorpionfish, seamoths, robust ghostpipefish, skeleton and mantis shrimps …

Another trip with beautiful conditions – clear blue water and just enough current to bring all the good stuff in! The seamounts in North Komodo were packed with fish, and we found ourselves totally embedded in Surgeonfish, Snappers and Fusilliers …

Highlight this trip’s gotta be the Mantas in the south of the Komodo National Park. Famous for its cleaning stations, with any luck you’ll see these majestic rays lining up to get fixed by hundreds of cleaner fish. With good …